Labour deputy leader who conspired to hide cocaine-dealing to be sworn in as judge tomorrow

Toni Abela, the Labour Party deputy leader who was revealed by secret recordings to have conspired to cover up evidence of cocaine-dealing in a Labour Party club, is to be sworn in as a judge tomorrow.

Abela was rejected by a European Parliament committee as a contender for the European Court of Auditors, last June. One of the key reasons for his rejection, other than his lack of competence, was his involvement in covering up cocaine-dealing at a party club, about which he was asked specific questions that he failed to answer, except to say, digging his own grave, “The police found nothing on me and they did not press charges.”

The Prime Minister had put him forward for the post to persuade him out of the position of deputy party leader, so that Konrad Mizzi, the Prime Minister’s left-hand man (Keith Schembri is the right), could be installed instead of him. Two days before Mizzi took on the post, this website broke the news that he had set up a secret company in Panama, sheltered by a secret trust in New Zealand, shortly after taking office in government.

Mizzi was later replaced by the disreputable Chris Cardona, Minister for the Economy, and Toni Abela was left out in the cold, having given up his highly disorganised professional practice in anticipation of his being made a member of the European Court of Auditors.

His compensation has been a corrupt appointment to the bench, which he will now hold until his mandatory retirement, and for which he is patently unfit not only in terms of lack of understanding of the law and its spirit, but also in his corrupt and unethical thinking.

There is another point: yesterday I heard a discussion on the radio in which somebody said that Joe Mifsud and Wenzu Mintoff – both former Labour Party officials – are giving ‘decent judgements’ and Toni Abela might turn out to be the same. But that’s not the point. Those appointments are corrupt to begin with, and the appointment of cronies cannot be tolerated in a just and democratic society, the greater irony being that they are appointments to the justice system.

Whether the beneficiary of a corrupt appointment turns out to be a good performer or a bad one is an entirely separate issue. These appointments should not be in the gift of politicians who use them as grace-and-favour gifts to reward cronies and those who agree to cooperate in their corrupt plans.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party should do itself and everyone else a favour and stop all mealy-mouthed references to the euphemism ‘blokka bajda’, which only serves to minimise the extreme seriousness of what we are dealing with here. This is cocaine, not a ‘white block’. COCAINE. IN A LABOUR PARTY CLUB. COVERED UP BY A DEPUTY LABOUR PARTY LEADER WHO IS TO BE SWORN IN AS A JUDGE.

The reason Toni Abela says ‘blokka bajda’ in this recording is because he wants to minimise his crime and the crimes of those others involved.

This is what we have come to. The deputy leader of the Labour Party conspires to conceal evidence of cocaine-dealing in a Labour Party club, is recorded describing this process, does not deny his involvement, stays on as party deputy leader, is put forward by the Prime Minister as a member of the European Court of Auditors, is rejected, and is then made a judge by that same Prime Minister, who wants him off his back and doesn’t give a fig about the consequences to democracy and the rule of law. And the police stay out of it.

God help Malta. Again.